Hi!

Mar 5 ChikaLicious

If you’re a human being with an intense appetite, you’ve probably heard of “cheat days.” Cheat days are for the people that want to maintain a healthy(ish) diet/lifestyle while still giving themselves the opportunity to indulge in their cravings so that they don’t feel deprived. Basically, cheat days are the only form of cheating that is good for humankind.

As I have chosen eating as my line of work, cheat days are very important to me. In fact, cheat days are my favorite day of the week. I give myself more than one. Anyway, before I tell the tale of my most recent cheat day at one of New York’s most splendid dessert spots, I must clarify: cheat days are not meant for binge eating. They are just days where you ~*treat yoself*~ to a meal of your choice so that you don’t end up going insane from deprivation and eating everything in your pantry.

Now that we've discussed the beauty of cheat days, lets talk about one of my favorite cheat day destinations: ChickaLicious. Chikalicious Dessert Club the perfect place to spend your cheat day if you have a raging sweet-tooth and/or emotional eating problem. The Dessert Club (located on 10th st. & 2nd Ave.) is the more casual of the Chikalicious establishments, along with a second dessert club in the west village, and a fancier dessert bar across the street where you can sit down for a prix-fixe dessert "meal." Since I'm a casual cookie who is almost always in a rush, I usually end up at the dessert club to satisfy my cravings. During my most recent outing, I was with a friend and we wanted to try tons of treats. So we did!

Here is what happens during a Chickalicous cheat day.

YOU WILL GET YOUR DESSERTS

You will then eat your desserts in order from least to most naughty. It's just more climactic that way.

CUPCAKES

There are 6 different kinds of cupcakes to choose from: red velvet, s'mores (the two pictured above), triple chocolate, vanilla, banana and green tea. I have tried each flavor except for the green tea cupcake, and I like them because they are moderately sized (not too gigantic that you end up feeling like a whale and not too small to leave you sad), they have nice, fluffy textures and the icing tends to be very velvety and flavorful. All of the cupcakes have this velvety icing except the s'mores cupcake, which instead has a much more dense, rich toasted marshmallow icing atop of a chocolate-filled cupcake.

DOUGHSSANT

Yes, a doughssant. AKA another name bakeries use for their croissant/doughnut hybrid treats instead of "cronut," allowing them to follow the cronut trend without losing all their dignity and falling under the shadow of Dominique Ansel. Regardless, doughssants are pretty baller. This here is a nice flaky dutch apple doughssant, but if you don't like Dutch things or apples, there are other flavors like Ferrero-nutella, Meyer-lemon, plain, creme brûlée and Teuscher-chocolate.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

Classically naughty.

CREPE CAKES

Layers on layers of crepe and cream. In addition to the vanilla and nutella pictured above, ChikaLicious also offers green tea.

ICE CREAM SUNDAES

This here is the Michelle Obama. She's got vanilla soft serve, frosted pecans, salted caramel and a shot of espresso. This was the inspiration for the Let's Move! campaign.

If you feel uncomfortable eating a dessert named after our First Lady, there are in fact other options for you! There are four other sundaes: banana custard pie (next up on my cheat day bucket list), green tea brownie nut custard, the ChikaLicious and simple green tea soft serve for those who aren't feeling spunky.

CHOCOLATE MOLTEN CAKE

Now you're really getting naughty.

BUN CHIKA BUN BUN

You're probably thinking, 'bun chika wow wtf is this?' Let me enlighten you! The Bun Chika Bun Bun is a choux pastry stuffed with cinnamon butter and held together with a Speculoos cookie bottom. It's dangerous and should not be handled lightly.

The ChikaLicious Dessert Club cheat day is best enjoyed by hungry individuals who share with friends. I do not recommend going on a ChikaLicious cheat day alone, but if you really feel that is what you want to do I am not one to judge.